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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 1889810" data-attributes="member: 18549">The reason why we play with a common set of rules, is so that there are fewer situations in which the DM can say "X happens" where X is something that harms your character and against you have no defense.  This kind of thing was rampant in the earlier editions of the game, where much was left up to the rulings of the "referee", who often had to make on-the-spot adjudications.  That was fine, so long as the DM was interested in making things fair and give you a sporting chance.  But if the DM liked to crush PCs for the hell of it, you were screwed like Archimedes.In d20, there is probably a rule that covers almost every possible situation.  Part of the reason for this is because the number of legal situations is reduced by abstraction.  What rule covers moving through someone else's space?  There are three core rules: overrun, tumble, and the rule that says that creatures more two or more size categories apart can share a space.  There are probably others, but they're less likely to come up...the Crush feat from SS you mention, for example.  When the DM tries to move someone through another person's space, he needs to follow one of these rules.  He is not allowed to arbitrarily declare that his monster can just stomp on a PC.The reason why he's not allowed to do that is because it starts fights.  It's arbitrary.  He could have decided that something else happened, but he chose the event that harms the PC.  Which indicates he wants the PC to be harmed, which indicates that he's not playing fair.  If he gives the PC a sporting chance to get out of the way of danger, that's one thing.  If he just stomps all over the poor halfling, that's another.  You should be able to expect that if there's a rule written, that the DM will play by it unless he's told you beforehand that he's not using that rule.  House rules are fine, so long as everyone knows about them beforehand, and the DM applies them consistently.  But arbitrary rulings are trouble because there's no way to establish that the DM doesn't just "have it in" for the PCs.</blockquote>

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